Saint Arnold Brewing Co. founder Brock Wagner leans in to smell hops, an ingredient essential to making beer, during a buying trip to Žatec, Czech Republic, with brewer Stephen Rawlings last October.

Saint Arnold Brewing Co. founder Brock Wagner leans in to smell...

ŽATEC, Czech Republic - The fragrant green flowers, each the size of the tip of a man's thumb, were heaped into three equal piles on a counter. The Americans, in borrowed white lab coats, approached like eager supplicants.

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